1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus and, more specifically, to a vehicle control apparatus including a plurality of loads that operate commonly receiving power supply from a power source.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, various electronically controlled equipment and facilities have come to be mounted on a vehicle. When a plurality of devices having different power consumption capacities are to be actuated simultaneously, however, a voltage drop occurs, resulting in lower speed of overall actuation. As a solution, it has been necessary to install a large generator or to increase battery capacity.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-189696 discloses a technique in which priorities are set among a plurality of devices, and when drive of a device having high priority becomes necessary, supply of driving power to a device of lower priority is stopped, whereby the generator size is reduced.
When the supply of driving power to the device is stopped, however, the device is set to an inoperative state. Long duration of the inoperative state possibly leads to a problem. Further, the device of which operation is once stopped takes longer time to attain the target operation.